Use of steganographically-encoded time information as basis to control implementation of dynamic content modification

ABSTRACT

A method and system for controlling implementation of dynamic content modification. The disclosure provides for using at least one steganographically-encoded timestamp in a media stream transmitted to a media client as a basis to determine a transmission delay for media-stream transmission to the media client, and for providing the determined transmission delay as a basis to facilitate control over whether to have the media client implement dynamic content modification. In addition, the disclosure provides for receiving respectively from each of various media clients a report indicating transmission delay determined for the media client based on such steganographically-encoded timestamp data, and using the transmission delays for the media clients to establish a dynamic-content-modification footprint that could be used to control whether, where, and to what extent dynamic content modification will be applied.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/643,944,filed Dec. 13, 2021, which is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 16/836,449, filed Mar. 31, 2020, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/929,220,filed Feb. 6, 2020, the entirety of each of which is hereby incorporatedby reference. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/836,449 also claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/865,607, filedJun. 24, 2019, and to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.62/882,247, filed Aug. 2, 2019, the entirety of which is herebyincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

A typical media client operates to receive an analog or digital mediastream representing media content such as video and/or audio content andto output the media content and/or forward the stream for presentationof the content on a user interface such as a display screen and/or anaudio speaker. Examples of such clients include televisions, computermonitors, projection systems, loudspeakers, headphones, set top boxes(e.g. cable or satellite TV receivers), digital video recorders, radios,personal computers, mobile communication devices, gaming consoles,streaming media players, and the like.

By way of example, a television could receive a broadcast stream (e.g.,over the air, from a set top box, through an Internet connection, or inanother manner) and could present the media content of that broadcaststream to a user. As another example, a set top box could receive abroadcast stream from a multi-channel video program distributor andcould output the media content of that stream via a High-DefinitionMultimedia Interface (HDMI) cable or other interface to a televisionand/or audio/video receiver for playout. As still another example, adigital video or audio recorder could likewise receive a broadcaststream but could store the broadcast stream for later playout. And asyet another example a loudspeaker or headphones could receive abroadcast audio stream from a radio, computer, or other device, andcould present the audio content of that stream to a user. Numerous otherexamples are possible as well.

SUMMARY

When a media client receives, outputs, or otherwise processes a linearmedia stream for presentation to a user (e.g., when the media client isreceiving, transcoding and/or rendering each frame of the media contentto facilitate presentation of the content on a user interface, and/or isotherwise processing the ongoing media stream), it may be useful incertain situations for the media client to take special action withrespect to the media content. Without limitation, for instance, it maybe useful for the media client to revise a portion of the stream's mediacontent, such as to dynamically replace an ad or other segment of themedia content with a replacement ad or with other replacement content,or to dynamically supplement a portion of the media content with overlayor split-screen content, such as channel identification, contextinformation, ad content, or the like.

Further, it may be desirable for the media client to perform suchcontent revision at a specific time point within the media stream. Forinstance, if the media client is to dynamically replace an existing adwith a replacement ad, it may be desirable for the media client toposition the replacement ad at a particular time in the media streamwhen the existing ad would have started. Likewise, if the client is tosupplement a specific portion of the media content with an overlaypossibly related to that portion, it may be desirable for the client tostart the overlay when that portion starts. Other examples are possibleas well.

More particularly, the media stream at issue could define a sequence offrames, such as video frames and/or audio frames, and it may bedesirable for the media client to perform the content revision on aframe-accurate basis. For instance, for dynamic advertisement insertion(DAI), it may be desirable for the media client to insert a replacementad in place of an existing ad starting precisely at the first frame ofthe existing ad. And for adding an overlay to a specific portion of themedia stream, it may be desirable for the media client to start theoverlay at or in specific time relation to the first frame of thatportion of the media stream.

To facilitate having the media client take this or other such action ata desired time point within the media stream that the media client isprocessing for presentation, a server or other entity (hereafter“server”) external to the media client could engage in signaling withthe media client, providing the media client with a directive for themedia client to take the action, and specifying the time point when themedia client is to take the action (“action time point”). The mediaclient could then take the action at the specified time point.

By way of example, the server could first determine the media stream(e.g., channel of content) that the media client is processing forpresentation. And as that determined media stream is en route to themedia client, the server could then evaluate the en-route media streamto detect presence of a content-modification opportunity in the mediastream and to determine a time point of that detectedcontent-modification opportunity in the media stream. Having determinedthe time point of the detected content-modification opportunity in themedia stream that is en route to the media client, the server could thenprovide the media client with advanced notice of that coming time point,i.e., informing the media client of the coming time point in the mediastream before that time point in the media stream reaches the mediaclient to be processed for presentation. That way, the media clientcould then prepare to carry out the content modification at theindicated time point and could accordingly carry out the contentmodification at the indicated time point.

This example process could take advantage of a time delay that is likelyto exist from the point in time when a content distribution systemoutputs or otherwise processes any given media content (e.g., frame) ofthe media stream to be transmitted to the media client to the point intime when the media client receives or otherwise processes that mediacontent for presentation. Depending on the configuration of the system,this delay could be on the order of 5-10 seconds.

Given this delay, it could be possible for the server to detect thepresence of a content-modification opportunity in the media stream enroute to the media client well enough before that portion of the mediastream arrives at the media client for processing. By engaging inrelatively quick out-of-band (e.g., Internet Protocol (IP) based)communication with the media client device during that delay period, theserver could therefore prepare the media client to engage in contentmodification at the time of the content-modification opportunity, sothat when that point in the media steam arrives at the media client forprocessing, the media client could then carry out the contentmodification in a timely manner.

One technical problem that can arise in a system arranged to carry outthis process is that the delay between when the content distributionsystem outputs or otherwise processes the media content of the mediastream to when a given media client receives or otherwise processes thatmedia content may be too short. Namely, the delay may not be long enoughto allow time for the server to give the media client sufficientadvanced notice of the approaching content-modification opportunity, inwhich case the media client may not have enough time to prepare toprepare for and engage in the content modification by the time thecontent-modification opportunity arrives.

In fact, this delay could vary from media client to media client and/orfrom market area to market area, depending on assorted factors, such asthe structure and operation of the content distribution system thatdistributes media streams to media clients, the structure and operationof the media clients, and the structure and operation of thecommunication paths between the content distribution systems and themedia clients, among other possibilities.

It may therefore be the case that, in a given market area (e.g.,designated market area (DMA)), the delay between a content distributionsystem and one or more media clients is long enough to facilitatedynamic content modification, but the delay between the contentdistribution system and one or more other media clients is not longenough to facilitate the process. Further, it may be the case that thedelay between one content distribution system and media clients is longenough to facilitate the process, but the delay between another contentdistribution system and media clients is not long enough to facilitatethe process. And still further, it may be the case that in one marketarea the delay between one or more content distribution systems and oneor more media clients is long enough to facilitate the process but thatin another market area, the delay between one or more contentdistribution systems and one or more media clients is not long enough tofacilitate the process.

This variance in delay from case to case may make it difficult to manageimplementation of dynamic content modification. For instance, if anadvertiser wishes to arrange for implementation of DAI in a given DMA,the variance in delay may result in the DAI not working for some mediaclients in the DMA. And in instances where the process would not work,there may be wasted signaling and cost with failed attempts to implementthe process.

The present disclosure provides a mechanism to help address thistechnical problem. In particular, the disclosure provides for use of oneor more steganographically-encoded timestamps (e.g., one or morewatermarked timestamps) as a basis to determine the transmission delaybetween a content distribution system and a media client and/or betweenassociated entities. Further, the disclosure provides for doing sorespectively for each of one or more media clients and/or for each ofvarious serving systems (e.g., each of various content distributionsystems, DMAs, or the like), in order to establish adynamic-content-modification footprint, perhaps represented by dataindicating where dynamic content modification is likely to be practical,considering transmission delay.

In an example implementation, a result of this process could be datathat indicates (i) which media clients and/or serving systems arecandidates for implementing dynamic content modification, based on theassociated transmission delay for such entities being long enough,and/or (ii) which other media clients and/or serving systems are notcandidates for implementing dynamic content modification, based on theassociated transmission delay for such entities not being long enough.For instance, the output could be a map or associated data thatrepresents a dynamic-content-modification footprint, such as a mapshowing, geographically or otherwise, where dynamic content modificationcan be implemented. Such output data could help to inform advertisingdecisions or the like.

These as well as other aspects, advantages, and alternatives will becomeapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reading the followingdetailed description, with reference where appropriate to theaccompanying drawings. Further, it should be understood that thedescriptions provided in this summary and below are intended toillustrate the invention by way of example only and not by way oflimitation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of an example system in whichvarious disclosed principles can be applied.

FIG. 2 is another simplified block diagram of an example system in whichvarious disclosed principles can be applied.

FIG. 3 is another simplified block diagram of an example system in whichvarious disclosed principles can be applied.

FIG. 4 is another simplified block diagram of an example system in whichvarious disclosed principles can be applied.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting a method that could be carried out inaccordance with the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is another flow chart depicting a method that could be carriedout in accordance with the disclosure.

FIG. 7 is another flow chart depicting a method that could be carriedout in accordance with the disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a simplified block diagram of an example system that couldoperate in accordance with the disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of an example media client thatcould operate in accordance with the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure will discuss example implementation in connectionwith media clients comprising content presentation devices such astelevisions, loudspeakers, or the like. It will be understood, however,that various principles disclosed could extend to apply with respect toother types of media clients, such as set top boxes or other receivers,mobile phones, and the like. Further, it will be understood that variousarrangements and processes described herein can take various otherforms. For instance, elements and operations can be re-ordered,distributed, replicated, combined, omitted, added, or otherwisemodified. And it will be understood that functions described herein asbeing carried out by one or more entities could be implemented by and/oron behalf of those entities, through hardware, firmware, and/orsoftware, such as by one or more processing units executing programinstructions or the like.

Referring to the drawings, as noted above, FIG. 1 is a simplified blockdiagram of an example system in which various disclosed principles canbe applied. As shown in FIG. 1 , the example system includes one or moremedia content sources 100 (e.g., broadcasters, web servers, etc.), oneor more media content distributors 102 (e.g., multi-channeldistributors, such as cable providers, satellite providers, over-the-airbroadcast providers, web aggregators, etc.), one or more media contentreceivers 104 (e.g., cable receivers, satellite receivers, over-the-airbroadcast receivers, computers or other streaming media receivers,etc.), and one or more clients or content presentation devices 106(e.g., televisions or other display devices, loudspeakers or other audiooutput devices, etc.)

In practice, for instance, the media content sources 100 could benational broadcasters, such as ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, HBO, and CNN, themedia content distributors 102 could be local affiliates and/or otherlocal content distributors, possibly for specific DMAs, and thereceivers 104 and content presentation devices 106 could then besituated at customer premises, such as homes or business establishments.

With this or other arrangements, the content sources 100 could delivermedia content to the content distributors 102 for distribution toreceivers 104 at customer premises, and the content distributors coulddistribute the media content to the receivers 104 as particular channelsof content (e.g., particular frequencies, particular streaming mediasessions, or other defined channels). Each receiver 104 could thenrespond to user input or one or more other triggers by tuning to orotherwise starting to receive a selected channel and outputting to oneor more content presentation devices 106 a media stream representingmedia content of the selected channel. And each content presentationdevice 106 could thus receive and render the media content (e.g.,display or otherwise present the content).

Without limitation, for instance, each content presentation device couldbe a television situated at customer premises, which could be coupled byan HDMI cable with a cable-TV set top box, and the set top box could becoupled through a local distribution network with a cable-TV head endthat distributes various television channels provided by national and/orlocal broadcasters. In this arrangement, the television could regularlyreceive a media stream via HDMI from the set top box, and the set topbox could tune to a particular channel from the head end in response touser input, so that the media stream arriving at the television wouldthen represent the user-selected channel. Other examples are possible aswell.

FIG. 2 next illustrates more specifically an example system in whichsome of the presently disclosed features could be implemented.

FIG. 2 shows at its top a representative content presentation device 200receiving a channel of content 202 being provided by a contentdistribution system 204. By way of example, the content presentationdevice 200 could be an example content presentation device 100 as shownin FIG. 1 , and the content distribution system 204 could comprise anysystem that outputs, delivers, or otherwise provides media content,perhaps as a representative media content source 100 and/or mediacontent distributor 102 of FIG. 1 , among other possibilities.

As such, the content presentation device 200 could be receiving andrendering the channel of content 202 in a media stream directly orindirectly from the content distribution system 204. The channel mightbe a linear broadcast feed and/or might be a streaming media channel,and the content presentation device might be receiving the channelthrough any of a variety of distribution channels, such as but notlimited to cable, satellite, terrestrial over-the-air broadcast, orothers now known or later developed.

In an example implementation, the media content of the channel coulddefine a sequence of digital frames of media content that the mediaclient is configured to render for presentation to a user. For instance,a media content source, media content distributor, and/or other entitymight be broadcasting, streaming, or otherwise providing this sequenceof frames encapsulated in a transport stream for receipt by a receiver(e.g., that is currently set to receive the channel of content), and thereceiver may be extracting the sequence of frames from the transportstream and outputting the sequence of frames as the media stream forreceipt and rendering by the media client.

As further shown in FIG. 2 , the content presentation device 200 isinterconnected with a communication network 206, which could be apacket-switched network such as the Internet. For instance, the contentpresentation device 200 may sit as a node on a local area network (LAN)at customer premises, with the content presentation device having anassigned Internet Protocol (IP) address on the LAN and the LAN having anIP address on the network 206. The content presentation device 200 couldthus engage in data communication with various entities via the network206 while the content presentation device 200 is receiving and renderingthe media stream representing the channel of content 202 provided by thecontent distribution system 204.

Shown accessible via the network 206 (e.g., at a defined IP address onthe network) is an automatic content recognition (ACR) server 208, whichcould operate to identify the channel of content being rendered by thecontent presentation device 200 and to coordinate having the contentpresentation device engage in channel-specific action, such as dynamiccontent modification of content included on the identified channel.

In practice, the ACR server 208 could determine in various ways thechannel of content being rendered by the content presentation device200. As one example, if the content presentation device 200 hasinformation that identifies the channel of content being rendered, thecontent presentation device 200 might transmit to the ACR server 208 amessage that specifies the channel being rendered. Alternatively, theACR server 208 and content presentation device 200 could cooperativelyengage in fingerprint-based ACR to identify the channel.

With fingerprint-based ACR, the ACR server 208 could be provisioned withreference data that includes digital reference fingerprints respectivelyrepresenting each of various known channels of media content (e.g., eachof the channels within a subscription plan for a set-top box thatsupplies media content to the content presentation device) and that mapsthe reference fingerprints to the respective channels that theyrepresent. Further, the ACR server 208 could receive digital queryfingerprints that represent the media content currently being renderedby the content presentation device, and the ACR server 208 could comparethe query fingerprints with the reference fingerprints in an effort tofind a match. Upon finding that the query fingerprints match thereference fingerprints mapped to a particular channel, the ACR server208 could thus determine that the channel being rendered by the contentpresentation device is that particular channel.

In an example implementation of fingerprint-based ACR, the contentdistribution system 204 that distributes each of one or more knownchannels of media content to content presentation devices couldregularly provision the ACR server 208 with reference data 210 to enablethe ACR server 208 to conduct the fingerprint analysis.

In particular, for each of one or more channels that the contentdistribution system 204 is distributing, the content distribution system204 could apply a reference-fingerprint generator 212 (e.g., programinstructions executable by a processor of the content distributionsystem 204) to generate reference fingerprints on a per-frame basis orother ongoing basis, and the content distribution system 204 couldestablish for each such reference fingerprint an associated referencetimestamp indicating the time at which the content distribution system204 processed the frame. Further, the content distribution system 204could regularly transmit to the ACR server 208 the referencefingerprints, specifying for each reference fingerprint the associatedreference timestamp, the channel whose frame the reference fingerprintrepresents, and an identity of the content distribution system 204.

Without limitation, an example digital fingerprinting process as tovideo content could apply on a per video frame basis and could involveestablishing a representation of luminosity and/or other videocharacteristics. For instance, for a given video frame, the fingerprintgenerator 212 could programmatically divide the frame into a grid, andthe fingerprint generator could measure luminosity of the frame per gridcell and generate a bit string with each bit or series of bitsrepresenting luminosity of a respective grid cell, or representing aweighted difference between the luminosity of certain defined pairs ofthe grid cells, or the like. Further, the fingerprint generator 212could apply this process continually to generate the digital fingerprintover time as a sequence of fingerprints (e.g., as a fingerprint stream).For instance, the fingerprint generator could apply this process to eachframe, to each key frame, periodically, or on another defined basis,with each frame's bit string defining a digital fingerprint and/or witha specified hash, combination, or series of such bit strings or otherrepresentative values defining a digital fingerprint, on a slidingwindow basis. Other digital fingerprinting processes could be used aswell.

The ACR server 208 could thus regularly receive from the contentdistribution system 204 the reference data including these referencefingerprints, each being tagged or otherwise associated with informationthat maps the reference fingerprint to the channel whose frame thereference fingerprint represents, and each being tagged or otherwiseassociated with an associated reference timestamp defining server timeof the underlying frame of content. And as the ACR server 208 receivesthis reference data, the ACR server 208 could store the reference datain a relational database or other form suitable for ready searching andaccess.

In addition, as the content presentation device 200 receives and rendersa media stream representing a given channel of media content 202, thecontent presentation device could generate the query fingerprints of themedia content on a pre-frame basis or other ongoing basis and couldregularly transmit the generated query fingerprints to the ACR server208 for analysis.

To facilitate this, the content presentation device 200 in an exampleimplementation could be equipped with a fingerprint generator 214 (e.g.,program instructions executable by a processor of the contentpresentation device 200), configured to generate query fingerprintsrepresenting the media content of the channel 202 that the contentpresentation device 200 is currently rendering. The fingerprintgenerator 214 could be configured to receive as input a copy of themedia content of the channel as the media content arrives at the contentpresentation device 200 and/or is processed for presentation by thecontent presentation device 200, and the fingerprint generator 214 couldbe configured to generate the query fingerprints of the media content ona per frame basis or other ongoing basis, using the same digitalfingerprinting process used to generate the reference fingerprints, soas to facilitate a comparison of the query fingerprints with thereference fingerprints.

Further, the content presentation device 200 could transmit itsgenerated query fingerprints via network 206 to the ACR server 208 foranalysis, to enable the ACR server 208 to engage in fingerprint-basedACR and coordination of associated channel-specific action. By way ofexample, the content presentation device 200 could periodically orotherwise from time to time transmit to the ACR server 208 the queryfingerprints representing a latest series of frames of the channel beingrendered by the content presentation device 200. For instance, thecontent presentation device 200 could generate a message carrying thelatest generated query fingerprints and could transmit the generatedmessage to the IP address of the ACR server 208 for analysis.

Given the query fingerprints representing media content of the channel202 being rendered by the content presentation device 200, and given thereference data including reference fingerprints respectivelyrepresenting each of various known channels, the ACR server 208 couldengage in fingerprint-based ACR processing. For instance, on an ongoingbasis or in response to one or more trigger events, the ACR server 208could compare the query fingerprints provided by the contentpresentation device 200 with the reference fingerprints provided by thecontent distribution system 204.

To compare a given query fingerprint with a given reference fingerprint,the ACR server 208 could compare corresponding portions of thefingerprints with each other to determine whether the portions matchexactly or within defined tolerances. For example, the ACR server 208could compute a maximum deviation between the fingerprints and determineif the maximum deviation is within a predefined tolerance. Further, ifthe fingerprints are binary, this could be a Boolean determination orcould involve computing a Hamming distance (as a count of mismatchesbetween respective bit locations in the fingerprints), and if thefingerprints are more complex values, such as decimal values or vectors(e.g., grey values per video frame region), this could involvedetermining a distance between the values or vectors. Numerous otherexamples are possible as well.

Upon finding with sufficient certainty that the query fingerprints matchthe reference fingerprints of a particular channel, the ACR server 208could then conclude that that is the channel being rendered by thecontent presentation device 200.

In a representative implementation, once the ACR server 208 hasdetermined, through fingerprint-based ACR or any in any other manner,the channel that the content presentation device is rendering, the ACRserver 208 or another entity could then engage in a process tofacilitate dynamic content modification, such as targeted advertisementreplacement. Thus, the dynamic content modification could be responsiveto the fingerprint-based ACR.

By way of example, once the ACR server 208 has determined the channelthat the content presentation device is rendering, the ACR server 208could then use that determined channel identity as a basis to detectwhen a content-modification opportunity is about to occur on thatparticular channel. And the ACR server 208 or other entity could thenresponsively cause the content presentation device to carry out acontent modification at the time of the content-modificationopportunity.

In line with the discussion above, this example channel-specific actioncould take advantage of the time delay that is likely to exist from thepoint in time when the content distribution system 204 outputs mediacontent of the channel for transmission to the content presentationdevice 200 to the point in time when the content presentation device 200receives and/or renders that media content. As noted above, this delaymight be on the order of 5-10 seconds.

Given that delay, it may be possible for the content distribution system204, the ACR server 208, and/or one or more other entities to detect thepresence of particular content defining a content-modificationopportunity on the channel that is en route to (e.g., about to be orbeing distributed to) the content presentation device 200 well enoughbefore that content arrives at the content presentation device 200.Namely, as discussed above, by engaging in relatively quick out-of-band(e.g., IP-based) communication with the content presentation device 200during that delay period, the ACR server 208 could then prepare thecontent presentation device 200 to engage in content modification withrespect to the detected content, so that when the detected contentultimately arrives at the content presentation device 200 and/or isready for presentation by the content presentation device 200, thecontent presentation device 200 could carry out the content modificationin a timely manner.

As to content modification, for instance, the ACR server 208 could beprovisioned in advance with modifiable-content segment data 216 thatincludes digital fingerprints respectively representing each of variousmodifiable-content segments of media content, along with associatedmetadata per modifiable-content segment, such as a duration of thesegment, an identifier of the segment, a type of associated contentmodification (e.g., replacement or overlay) and the like. For instance,a content management system 218 could generate and provide thisinformation in advance to the ACR server.

Having identified the channel being rendered by the content presentationdevice, the ACR server 208 could then compare the ongoing sequence ofreference fingerprints representing that identified channel with thefingerprints representing the various modifiable-content segments. Andupon finding with sufficient certainty that the reference fingerprintsof the identified channel match the fingerprints representing aparticular modifiable-content segment, the ACR server 208 couldreasonably conclude that the channel of media content en route to thecontent presentation device includes that modifiable-content segment.Further, the ACR server could thereby determine from the reference data210 of the identified channel the reference timestamp indicating whenthe modifiable content segment is present on the channel.

Upon so detecting the presence of a modifiable-content segment in themedia content of the channel that is en route to the contentpresentation device 200, the ACR server 208 could then responsivelyengage in out-of-band signaling with the content presentation device 200to enable, cause, and prepare the content presentation device 200 toperform a content modification with respect to that particularmodifiable-content segment. Namely, the ACR server 208 could transmit tothe content presentation device 200 a content-modification directive,directing the content presentation device 200 to carry out the contentmodification.

In this directive, the ACR server 208 could provide the contentpresentation device 200 with timing information regarding the upcomingcontent modification opportunity. This timing information regarding theupcoming content modification opportunity could include the referencetimestamp that the reference data 210 indicates for the referencefingerprint representing the first frame of the modifiable-contentsegment. With this timing information, the content presentation device200 could accordingly plan to carry out a content modification at theindicted action time point as the content presentation device 200processes the channel of content for presentation.

Further, the ACR server 208 could provide the content presentationdevice 200 with various other information regarding the modifiablecontent segment, to enable the content presentation device to carry outthe content modification at the indicated time of the modifiable-contentsegment. For instance, the ACR server 208 could provide the contentpresentation device 200 with metadata as described above, such as aduration of the segment, an identifier of the segment, and a type ofassociated content modification (e.g., replacement or overlay) and thelike.

With this information, the content presentation device 200 could thenresponsively work with the content management system 218 and/or anotherentity to obtain details of the content modification to perform withrespect to the upcoming modifiable-content segment. For instance, thecontent presentation device 200 could transmit to the content managementsystem 218 a request that provides the content management system 218with the modifiable-content segment identifier and other associatedmetadata about the modifiable content segment. And the contentmanagement system 218 could responsively provide the contentpresentation device 200 with information to facilitate the contentmodification.

The content management system 218 could use various information as abasis to determine supplemental content that the content presentationdevice 200 should render in place of or as an overlay superimposed onthe modifiable-content segment. For instance, the content managementsystem 218 could use user-demographics, location, and/or otherinformation regarding the content presentation device 200 as a basis todetermine appropriate supplemental content.

Further, the content management system 218 could ascertain a storagelocation of determined supplemental content and could provide thecontent presentation device 200 with an indication of that storagelocation. For instance, the content management system 218 could query asupplemental-content delivery system 220 to determine a uniform resourcelocator (URL) or other address from which the content presentation 200device could obtain the supplemental content from a network server orfrom local data storage of the content presentation device 200. And thecontent management system 218 could provide the content presentationdevice 200 with that address and/or with other information to enable thecontent presentation device 200 to obtain the supplemental content.Alternatively, the content management system 218 itself or anotherentity could provide the content presentation device 200 with thesupplemental content.

With this information, the content presentation device 200 could thusobtain the supplemental content and could plan to present thesupplemental content (e.g., as replacement or overlay) at the time ofthe modifiable-content segment on the channel that the contentpresentation device 200 is rendering.

The example content-modification process described so far could becarried out for various purposes. Without limitation, for instance, thecontent-modification process could be carried out to facilitate DAI,such as where the content presentation device replaces a generallyapplicable ad (e.g., a nationally broadcast ad) with a replacement adpossibly selected based on location, user demographics, and/or otherinformation specific to the content presentation device.

For DAI, an entity such as content broadcaster, distributor, orad-replacement service might enter into agreements with advertisers tofacilitate replacing playout of certain ads, deemed “replaceable ads,”with different ads, deemed “replacement ads.” For each of variousreplaceable ads, the content management system 218 or other entity couldthen receive a copy of the replaceable ad and could provision the ACRserver 208 with digital fingerprints representing the replaceable ad andwith associated data regarding the replaceable ad. For instance, foreach replaceable ad, the content management system 218 could generatedigital fingerprints of the replaceable ad on a per-frame basis or thelike and could transmit to the ACR server 208 the generated fingerprintsof the replaceable ad along with metadata as described above, such as aunique identifier of the replaceable ad, a duration of the replaceablead, an indication that the ad is to be replaced, and so forth. (Further,the data provided to the ACR server 208 could include a traffic schedulethat indicates when specific ads, with particular identifiers andassociated fingerprints, are scheduled to be presented on each of one ormore channels.)

Once the ACR server 208 has identified the channel being rendered by thecontent presentation device 200, the ACR server 208 could thenresponsively compare the reference fingerprints representing thatidentified channel with the fingerprints representing variousreplaceable ads. And upon finding with sufficient certainty that thereference fingerprints of the identified channel match the fingerprintsrepresenting a particular replaceable ad, the ACR server 208 couldreasonably conclude that the channel being rendered by the contentpresentation device 208 includes the replaceable ad, and morespecifically that the media content en route to the content presentationdevice 208 includes that replaceable ad.

In response to this conclusion, the ACR server 208 and/or another entitycould engage in signaling with the content presentation device 200 toprepare the content presentation device 200 to present a replacement adin place of the replaceable ad. In line with the discussion above, forinstance, the ACR server 208 or other entity could transmit to thecontent presentation device 200, through out-of-band signaling, one ormore messages that provide the content presentation device 200 with (i)a reference timestamp as described above that indicates when thereplaceable ad will occur on the channel that the content presentationdevice 200 is rendering, (ii) the unique identifier of the replaceablead, and (iii) a duration of the replaceable ad.

Given the identifier and duration of the replaceable ad, the contentpresentation device 200 could then engage in out-of-band signaling withthe content management system 218 to ascertain a replacement ad that thecontent presentation device should render in place of the replaceablead. Here, the content presentation device 200 might provide the contentmanagement system 218 with a user identification, demographics,location, and/or other information that the content management system218 could use as a basis to select an appropriate replacement ad.Further, the content management system 218 could use the duration of thereplaceable ad, indicated by the content presentation device 200 ormapped to the ad-identifier of the replaceable ad for instance, toselect a replacement ad that is of the same duration as the replaceablead.

The content management system 218 could then work with thesupplemental-content delivery system 220 to determine a URL or otheraddress or location from which the content presentation device couldobtain the replacement ad and could inform the content presentationdevice 200 accordingly. And the content presentation device 200 couldthus obtain the replacement ad and plan to render it in place of thereplaceable ad on the channel that the content presentation device 200is rendering, as discussed above.

A technical issue with this process is that, if the ACR server 208characterizes the time of occurrence of the modifiable-content segmentas the reference timestamp time of when the modifiable-content segmentwas processed by the content distribution system 204, that timinginformation alone would not account for the transmission delay betweenwhen the content distribution system 204 outputs or otherwise processesthe modifiable-content segment to when the content presentation device200 receives or otherwise processes the modifiable-content segment.Namely, as the channel of content flows from the content distributionsystem 204 to the content presentation device 200, the time of arrivalor other processing of the modifiable-content segment at the contentpresentation device 200 would be later than the reference time by atleast that transmission delay, which would make dynamic contentmodification at that indicated time impractical

By way of example, if the transmission delay is 10 seconds, thenmodifiable-content segment would arrive at the content presentationdevice at least 10 seconds after the reference time of themodifiable-content segment that the ACR server 208 indicated in itsdirective to the content presentation device 200. Therefore, given justthat timing information, the content presentation device 200 would beunable to carry out dynamic content modification at the appropriatetime.

One way to help address this technical issue as to a given contentpresentation device 200, is to determine the transmission delay betweenthe content distribution system 204 and the content presentation device200, such as the difference in time from the time when the contentdistribution system 204 outputs or otherwise processes the media contentto the time when the content presentation device 200 receives orotherwise processes the media content. Given knowledge of thattransmission delay, the ACR server 208, content presentation device 200,or another entity could then translate the reference time of acontent-modification opportunity to the time that the contentpresentation device 200 would receive or otherwise process thatcontent-modification opportunity. That way, the content presentationdevice 200 could then plan to carry out dynamic content modification atthe appropriate time.

In accordance with the present disclosure, this transmission delay couldbe established by use of steganographically encoded time information.

By way of example, each of one or more media streams transmitted fromthe content distribution system 204 to the content presentation device200 could be watermarked with one or more watermarks each encodingreference time of the watermark, i.e., the reference time of the pointat which the watermark is positioned in the media stream. As the contentpresentation device 200 receives each such ongoing media stream, thecontent presentation device 200 could then detect and decode each suchwatermark to determine the reference time encoded by the watermark andcould compute a difference between that reference time and a currenttime at the content presentation device, with that difference defining atransmission delay between the content distribution system 204 and thecontent presentation device 200.

The content presentation device 200 could then use that computedtransmission delay as a basis to determine when to carry out contentmodification on a channel of content, given an ACR-server-providedreference timestamp indicating when to carry out the contentmodification, such as a reference timestamp of a givencontent-modification opportunity. Alternatively, the contentpresentation device 200 could report the determined transmission delayto the ACR server 208, and the ACR server 208 could use thattransmission delay as a basis to translate the reference time of thecontent-modification opportunity to a time at which the contentpresentation device 200 should carry out the content modification andcould then include that determined time in its content-modificationdirective to the content presentation device 200.

Other mechanisms for using the computed transmission delay to facilitatedynamic content modification could be applied as well. Further, notethat the channel of content in which the content modification would becarried out at a time determined based on the computed transmissiondelay could be one of the one or more media streams in which the one ormore watermarks were provided and used as a basis to determine thetransmission delay, or could be another channel of content.

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram illustrating components that couldbe involved in an example implementation. In particular, FIG. 3illustrates a content presentation device 300, a content distributionsystem 304, and an ACR server 308.

The content presentation device 300, content distribution system 304,and the ACR server 308 could be examples of the content presentationdevice 200, the content distribution system 204, and the ACR server 208discussed above. For instance, the content presentation device 300 couldbe a television located at customer premises, the ACR server 308 couldbe a network server configured to carry out fingerprint matching,content identification, and triggering of dynamic content modificationas discussed above, with the content presentation device 300 and ACRserver 308 being in communication with each other via a network 306 suchas the Internet. Further the content distribution system 304 couldoperate to distribute a media stream in a channel of content directly orindirectly to the content presentation device 300.

As further shown in FIG. 3 , the content distribution system 304 couldinclude a timestamp-watermark encoder 310 that the content distributionsystem 304 could use in order to encode one or more timestamp-watermarksinto a media stream that is being output or otherwise processed fordelivery to at least the content presentation device 300. And thecontent presentation device 300 could include a timestamp-watermarkdecoder 312 that the content presentation device 300 could use in orderto decode one or more timestamp-watermarks from a media stream that thecontent presentation device 300 is receiving and/or processing forpresentation. Each of these components could comprise software stored indata storage and executable by a processing unit and/or could take otherforms.

As is known in the art, watermarking typically involves permanentlyembedding or otherwise encoding information into media content in amanner that enables the information to be decoded and extracted from themedia content by a receiver of the media content but that may beimperceptible to a user to whom the media content is presented. This isin contrast to inserting such information into a packet header or thelike without encoding the information into the underlying media contentitself. Watermarking may permanently change the media content and beimpossible to remove.

More particularly, watermarking media content could involve encodinginto the media content a code that can be mapped to associatedinformation, or perhaps more directly encoding into the media contentthe associated information. In an example implementation, the watermarkcode could be on the order of 24 bits, and the watermarking could bedone in an audio component of the media content and/or in a videocomponent of the media content, depending on the form of the mediacontent for instance.

Existing audio watermarking techniques include, without limitation,inserting audio energy into the audio signal or otherwise adjusting oneor more characteristics of the audio signal in a manner that can bedetected by a suitably configured watermark-detection algorithm but thatis masked from hearing (e.g., the audio characteristic and/or manner ofencoding being sufficient to hide the watermark from humandetection)—known as stenographic or psychoacoustic encoding.

Examples of audio watermarks and corresponding watermark detectiontechniques, without limitation, are described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,359,205(entitled “Methods and Apparatus to Perform Audio Watermarking andWatermark Detection and Extraction,” which issued on Jan. 22, 2013),U.S. Pat. No. 8,369,972 (entitled “Methods and Apparatus to PerformAudio Watermarking Detection and Extraction,” which issued on Feb. 5,2013), U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2010/0223062 (entitled “Methodsand Apparatus to Perform Audio Watermarking and Watermark Detection andExtraction,” which was published on Sep. 2, 2010), U.S. Pat. No.6,871,180 (entitled “Decoding of Information in Audio Signals,” whichissued on Mar. 22, 2005), U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,763 (entitled “Apparatusand Methods for Including Codes in Audio Signals and Decoding,” whichissued on Jun. 9, 1998), U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,962 (entitled “Method andApparatus for Automatically Identifying a Program Including a SoundSignal,” which issued on Nov. 12, 1996), U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,800(entitled “Method and Apparatus for Automatically Identifying a ProgramIncluding a Sound Signal,” which issued on Dec. 3, 1996), U.S. Pat. No.5,787,334 (entitled “Method and Apparatus for Automatically Identifyinga Program Including a Sound Signal,” which issued on Jul. 28, 1998), andU.S. Pat. No. 5,450,490 (entitled “Apparatus and Methods for IncludingCodes in Audio Signals and Decoding,” which issued on Sep. 12, 1995, allof which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

Existing video watermarking techniques, on the other hand, involveembedding a code in a video component of the media content in a mannerthat can be detected by a suitably configured watermark-detectionalgorithm but that is masked from human visual detection.

Examples of video watermarking techniques include various spatial-domaintechniques such as flipping pixels, embedding the watermark into leastsignificant bits, and adding a pseudo-random noise pattern to the video,and various frequency-domain techniques, such as SVD domainwatermarking, Discrete Fourier Transform watermarking, Discrete CosineTransform watermarking, Discrete Wavelet Transform watermarking, andprincipal component analysis watermarking. Other examples are possibleas well.

In line with the discussion above, each timestamp-watermark that thecontent distribution system 304 encodes into the media stream could beat a respective time position in the media stream, such as at or inrelation to a particular frame of the media stream, and could encodereference time indicating the time at which the content distributionsystem 304 outputs or otherwise processes that position of the ongoingmedia stream.

As the content presentation device 300 receives or otherwise processesone or more such media streams, the content presentation device 300could then detect and decode one or more such watermarks from the mediastream(s), extracting or otherwise determining the reference timeencoded by the watermark. And for each such watermark, the contentpresentation device 300 could compute a respective time offset definingtransmission delay between that indicated reference time and a currenttime at the content presentation device 300. Further, if the contentpresentation device 300 uses multiple such watermarks to computemultiple such transmission delays between reference time at the contentdistribution system 304 and current time at the content presentationdevice 300, the content presentation device 300 could compute an ongoingaverage or other representative transmission delay over a sliding windowof time or the like. In addition, the content presentation device 300could report each such computed transmission delay and/or a rolled upaverage transmission delay to the ACR server 308.

The content presentation device 300 or ACR server 308 could then usethis established transmission delay as a basis to enable the contentpresentation device 300 to carry out dynamic content modification at adesired action time point in a channel of content 302 that the contentpresentation device 300 is processing for presentation.

As noted above, for instance, when the content presentation device 300is receiving and/or processing a channel of content 302 comprising amedia stream and the content presentation device 300 receives from theACR server 308 a directive to carry out dynamic content modification ata particular action time point indicated as reference time, the contentpresentation device 300 could apply the computed transmission delay todetermine the time when the content presentation device 300 should carryout that dynamic content modification. For instance, the contentpresentation device 300 could add the computed transmission delay to theindicated action time point in order to compute a corresponding time ofthe action time point at the content presentation device 300. And thecontent presentation device 300 could then carry out the dynamic contentmodification at that computed time.

Alternatively, when the ACR server 308 determines the reference time ofa content-modification opportunity in the media stream, the ACR server308 could add the computed transmission delay to that reference time inorder to translate the reference time to a time when thecontent-modification opportunity would be processed by the contentpresentation device 300. And the ACR server 308 could specify thatdetermined time in its content-modification directive to the contentpresentation device 300, so that the content presentation device 300could then carry out the dynamic content modification appropriately atthat time.

As further indicated above, another technical issue that can arise inthis process is that the transmission delay between the contentdistribution system 304 and the content presentation device 300 may betoo short to allow the content presentation device 300 to prepare forcarrying the dynamic content modification at the approaching action timepoint.

It may take some time and effort for the content presentation device 300to prepare for carrying out dynamic content modification at an indicatedaction time point. As indicated above, for instance, the contentpresentation device 300 may need to interact with a content managementsystem and a supplemental content delivery system, to determine thecontent modification. Further, there could be other or alternative stepsinvolved in preparing to carry out the dynamic content modification atthe desired time. Unfortunately, if the transmission delay between thecontent distribution system 304 and content presentation device 300 istoo short, then the content presentation device 300 may not have enoughtime to engage in the necessary preparation between the time that thecontent presentation device 304 receives the content-modificationdirective (or otherwise learns of an upcoming content-modificationopportunity) to the time of the upcoming content-modificationopportunity. Therefore, the content presentation device 300 may beunable to carry out the dynamic content modification or may at least beunable to do so in a timely manner.

In accordance with the present disclosure, a computing system could workto resolve this issue by making use of the transmission delay determinedbased on timestamp-watermarking as discussed above. In particular, as acondition precedent for the ACR server 308 engaging in processing todirect the content presentation device 300 to implement dynamic contentmodification with respect to content being transmitted from the contentdistribution system 304 to the content presentation device 300, thecomputing system could require that the computed transmission delaybetween the content distribution system 304 and the content presentationdevice 300 is long enough to accommodate dynamic content modification.The computing system could thus use the watermark-based determination oftransmission delay as a basis to control whether the ACR server 308 willengage in processing to direct the content presentation device toimplement dynamic content modification.

In a representative implementation for instance, the computing systemcould be provisioned with a predefined threshold-long transmission delayvalue that is deemed to be long enough to allow enough time for acontent presentation device to prepare for carrying out dynamic contentmodification in a usual case, or a predefined threshold-shorttransmission delay value that is deemed to be so short as to not allowenough time for a content presentation device to prepare for carryingout dynamic content modification in a usual case. Such threshold valuescould be established through experimentation and engineering designchoice, or through automated machine learning processes, and stored inthe computing system.

Given the transmission delay computed for transmission between thecontent distribution system 304 and the content presentation device 300based on timestamp-watermarking as discussed above, the computing systemcould then compare that computed transmission delay with a provisionedthreshold transmission delay value. And based on that comparison thecomputing system could determine whether the transmission delay betweenthe content distribution system 304 and the content presentation device300 is long enough to facilitate dynamic content modification.

If the computing system thereby determines that the transmission delaybetween the content distribution system 304 and the content presentationdevice 300 is long enough to facilitate dynamic content modification,then the computing system could allow or cause the ACR server 308 toengage in processing to direct the content presentation device toimplement dynamic content modification. Whereas if the computing systemthereby determines that the transmission delay between the contentdistribution system 304 and the content presentation device 300 is notlong enough to facilitate carrying out dynamic content modification,then the computing system could block or forgo causing the ACR server308 engaging in processing to direct the content presentation device 300to carry out dynamic content modification.

In an example implementation, in response to at least the determinationbeing that the transmission delay between the content distributionsystem 304 and the content presentation device 300 is long enough forthe content presentation device 300 to be able to carry out dynamiccontent modification with respect to content transmitted from thecontent distribution system 304 to the content presentation device 300,the ACR server 308 could thus engage in various steps to trigger dynamiccontent modification by the content presentation device 300. Forinstance, in response to at least that determination, the ACR server 308could engage in the steps described above to identify the channel beingrendered by the content presentation device 300, to detect on thechannel being rendered by the content presentation device 300 thepresence of a content-modification opportunity such has a replacementad, and to direct the content presentation device 300 to carry outdynamic content modification with respect the detectedcontent-modification opportunity.

Whereas, in response to at least the determination being that thetransmission delay between the content distribution system 304 and thecontent presentation device 300 is too short, i.e., not long enough toallow the content presentation device 300 to be able to carry outdynamic content modification with respect to content transmitted fromthe content distribution system 304 to the content presentation device304, then the ACR server 308 could forgo engaging in one or more ofthose steps. Namely, in response to that determination, the ACR server308 could forgo (i) working to identify the channel being rendered bythe content presentation device, (ii) working to detect on that channelthe presence of a content-modification opportunity, and/or (iii)directing the content presentation device 300 to carry out dynamiccontent modification with respect to the content-modificationopportunity, among other possibilities.

Optimally, this process could help to minimize the likelihood ofengaging in unnecessary processing and signaling trying to have thecontent presentation device 300 carry out dynamic content modificationin a situation where the transmission delay between the contentdistribution system 304 and the content presentation device 300 islikely to be impractically short.

In an example implementation of this process, the computing system couldbe at the ACR server 308, implemented by a programmed processing unit ofthe ACR server 308 for instance. The computing system could thus learnthe transmission delay between the content distribution system 304 andthe content presentation device 300 by receiving the contentpresentation device's report of the computed transmission delay asdescribed above. Alternatively, the computing system could be providedat another entity that would interwork with the ACR server 308.

In addition, as discussed above, this process could also be extended toapply in a system that includes multiple content presentation devicesand/or multiple content distribution systems, where the transmissiondelay may vary from content presentation device to content presentationdevice and/or from content distribution system to content distributionsystem.

In such a system, there could be some content presentation devices thatwould have sufficiently long enough transmission delay to facilitatecarrying out dynamic content modification, and there could be othercontent presentation devices that would not have long enoughtransmission delay to facilitate dynamic content modification. Forexample, of all of the content presentation devices served by a givencontent distribution system, some may have sufficiently longtransmission delays but others may not. As another example, of multiplecontent distribution systems in a given DMA, the content presentationdevices served by a given content distribution system may havesufficiently long transmission delays but the content presentationdevices served by another of the content distribution systems may not.And as still another example, of multiple DMAs, the content presentationdevices in a given DMA may have sufficiently long transmission delaysbut the content presentation devices in another DMA may not.

Given this variance, it may be useful to apply the above process inorder to determine which content presentation devices would have longenough transmission delays to be reasonable candidates for carrying outdynamic content modification, and to establish a set of data defining adynamic content modification footprint, indicating which contentpresentation devices, perhaps by location, are deemed candidates forcarry out dynamic content modification. For instance, this data couldindicate which content presentation devices served by a given contentdistribution system or in a given DMA have long enough transmissiondelays and are therefore candidates for carrying out dynamic contentmodification, and/or which content distribution systems serve suchcandidate content presentation devices, among another possibilities.

As noted above, such data could help inform targeted advertisingdecisions or the like. For instance, provided with this data,advertisers could decide whether, where, and to what extent they wouldlike to arrange for implementation of DAI. Further, this data could beused by an ACR provider as a basis to control whether, where, and towhat extent the ACR provider carries out processing to direct contentpresentation devices to implement dynamic content modification. Forinstance, the computing system might provide this data for use by afingerprint-matching server or other ACR server to control which contentpresentation devices the ACR server would work with to triggerimplementation of dynamic content modification.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example system in which this process could becarried out, where the system includes multiple content distributionsystems 404 a, 404 b, 404 c, and multiple content presentation devices400 a, 400 b, 400 c, 400 d. Namely, figure illustrates that contentdistribution system 404 a would deliver channels of content to one ormore content presentation devices 400 a, content distribution system 404b would deliver channels of content to one or more content presentationdevices 400 b, and content distribution system 404 c would deliverchannels of content to content presentation devices 400 c and to contentpresentation devices 400 d.

In this figure, transmission delays from content distribution systems tocontent presentation devices are represented by the illustrated lengthof bold arrows extending from the content distribution systems to thecontent presentation devices. Namely, longer bold arrows correspond withlonger transmission delays, and a shorter bold arrows correspond withshorter transmission delay. These varying transmission delays could beattributable to varying distance of transmission and/or to any of avariety of other factors.

In an example implementation, a computing system could use the processdescribed above to determine respectively for each content presentationdevice 400 the transmission delay for transmission of media content tothe content presentation device 400 from the content presentationdevice's serving content distribution system 404. And for each suchcontent presentation device 400, the computing system could use theprocess described above to determine whether that determinedtransmission delay is long enough to facilitate dynamic contentmodification as to media content transmitted from the contentdistribution system 404 to the content presentation device.

With the arrangement illustrated, for instance, the computing system maythereby determine that the transmission delays for transmission of mediacontent from content distribution system 304 a to content presentationdevices 400 a are long enough to facilitate dynamic content modificationand therefore that content presentation devices 400 a are candidates forcarrying out dynamic content modification. And likewise, the computingsystem may determine that the transmission delays for transmission ofmedia content from content distribution system 404 c to contentpresentation devices 400 d are long enough to facilitate dynamic contentmodification and therefore that content presentation devices 400 d arealso candidates for carrying out content modification.

On the other hand, the computing system may thereby determine that thetransmission delays for transmission of media content from contentdistribution system 304 b to content presentation devices 400 b are tooshort and therefore that content presentation devices 400 b are notcandidates for carrying out dynamic content modification. And likewise,the computing system may determine that the transmission delays fortransmission of media content from content distribution system 404 c tocontent presentation devices 400 c are too short and therefore thatcontent presentation devices 400 c are also not candidates for carryingout content modification.

For each such content presentation device 400 that the computing systemdeems to be a candidate for carrying out dynamic content modification,the computing system could determine the identity of the contentpresentation device 400 through signaling from the content presentationdevice 400, and the computing system might also look up or otherwisedetermine the geographic location of the content presentation device400. Further, the computing system might determine the identity of thecontent presentation device's serving content distribution system 404,for instance based on the metadata associated with the referencefingerprints generated for one or more channels of content delivered tothe content presentation device 400 as discussed above, and thecomputing system might also look up the locations and/or DMAs of thosecontent distribution systems 404.

The computing system could thereby establish and outputdynamic-content-modification footprint data that indicates which contentpresentation devices are candidates for carrying out dynamic contentmodification. For instance, the computing system could output a heat mapor other data depicting or otherwise indicating counts of candidatecontent presentation devices per geographic area and possibly per DMA orcontent distribution system, or more or less granularly indicating whereand/or to what extent dynamic content modification could likely besuccessfully carried out. Alternatively, the computing system couldoutput such data in other forms deemed practical for use.

In an example implementation, as noted above, the computing system couldoutput this data for use by an ACR server to control the extent to whichthe ACR server engages in processing to direct content presentationdevices to carry out dynamic content modification. Namely, provided withthis dynamic content modification footprint data established asdescribed above, the ACR server could determine which contentpresentation devices (e.g., of which serving systems such as contentdistribution systems or DMAs) are candidates for carrying out dynamiccontent modification, and the ACR server could limit itself to engage inprocessing to direct implementation of dynamic content modification byjust those candidate content presentation devices. Thus, the ACR couldforgo or otherwise not carry out certain processing steps as discussedabove with respect to content presentation devices that are not deemedto be candidates for carrying out dynamic content modification.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting a method that can be carried out inaccordance with the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 5 , at block 500, the method includes using at leastone steganographically-encoded timestamp (e.g., a watermark that encodestime information) in a media stream transmitted to a media client (e.g.,a content presentation device) as a basis to determine a transmissiondelay for media-stream transmission to the media client. And at block502, the method includes providing the determined transmission delay asa basis to facilitate control over whether to have the media clientimplement dynamic content modification (e.g., DAI).

In line with the discussion above, the media stream in this method couldbe transmitted to the media client from a content distribution system.And in that case, the act of using the at least onesteganographically-encoded timestamp in the media stream transmitted tothe media client as a basis to determine the transmission delay formedia-stream transmission to the media client could involve using the atleast one steganographically-encoded timestamp in the media streamtransmitted to the media client as a basis to determine the transmissiondelay for media-stream transmission from the content distribution systemto the media client.

As further discussed above, the at least one steganographically-encodedtimestamp could indicate a reference time at the content distributionsystem. And in that case, the act of using the at least onesteganographically-encoded timestamp in the media stream transmitted tothe media client as a basis to determine the transmission delay formedia-stream transmission from the content distribution system to themedia client could involve (i) decoding the steganographically-encodedtimestamp from the media stream to determine the reference time, (ii)determining a current time at the media client, and (iii) comparing thedetermined current time with the determined reference time to determinethe transmission delay.

FIG. 6 is next another flow chart depicting a method that can be carriedout in accordance with the present disclosure. In an exampleimplementation, this method could be carried out by a computing system,which could be at an ACR server or other entity.

As shown in FIG. 6 , at block 600, the method includes receiving areport indicating a determined transmission delay for media-streamtransmission to a media client, the transmission delay having beendetermined based at least on timestamp data steganographically-encodedin a media stream transmitted to the media client. And at block 602, themethod includes using the determined transmission delay as a basis tocontrol whether to have the media client implement dynamic contentmodification, such as DAI for instance.

In line with the discussion above, in this method, the act of using thedetermined transmission delay as a basis to control whether to have themedia client implement dynamic content modification could involve (i)making a determination of whether determined transmission delay is atleast as long as a predefined threshold delay, (ii) if the determinationis affirmative, then, based at least on the determination, directing themedia client to implement dynamic content modification, and (iii) if thedetermination is negative, then, based at least on the determination,not directing the media client to implement dynamic contentmodification.

Further, as discussed above, the act of using the determinedtransmission delay as a basis to control whether to have the mediaclient implement dynamic content modification could involve using thedetermined transmission delay as a basis to control whether a serverengages in processing for directing the media client to implementdynamic content modification. For instance, this could involve using thedetermined transmission delay as a basis to control whether the serverengages in one or more steps such as working to identify a channel beingrendered by the media client, working to detect on the channel apresence of a content-modification opportunity, and/or directing themedia client to carry out dynamic content modification (e.g., DAI) withrespect to the content-modification opportunity.

FIG. 7 is next another flow chart depicting a method that can be carriedout in accordance with the present disclosure. In an exampleimplementation, this method as well could be carried out by a computingsystem, which could be at an ACR server or other entity.

As shown in FIG. 7 , at block 700, the method includes, respectively foreach of a plurality of media clients, receiving from the media client areport indicating determined transmission delay for media-streamtransmission to the media client, the transmission delay having beendetermined based at least on timestamp data steganographically-encodedin a media stream transmitted to the media client. Further, at block702, the method includes using the transmission delays for the pluralityof media clients as a basis to establish a dynamic-content-modificationfootprint, the dynamic-content-modification footprint indicating, basedon the determined transmission delays respectively for the mediaclients, which media clients are candidates for implementing dynamiccontent modification. And at block 704, the method includes using theestablished dynamic-content-modification footprint as a basis to controlwhich media clients to have implement dynamic content modification.

In line with the discussion above, in this method, the act of using thetransmission delays for the plurality of media clients to establish thedynamic-content-modification footprint could involve, for each mediaclient (i) making a determination of whether transmission delaydetermined for the media client is at least as long as a predefinedthreshold delay, (ii) if the determination is affirmative, then, basedat least on the determination, indicating in thedynamic-content-footprint that the media client is a candidate forimplementing dynamic content modification, and (iii) if thedetermination is negative, then, based at least on the determination,not indicating in the dynamic-content-footprint that the media client isa candidate for implementing dynamic content modification.

In line with the discussion above, in this method, the act of using theestablished dynamic-content-modification footprint as a basis to controlwhich media clients to have implement dynamic content modification couldinvolve (i) identifying based on the establisheddynamic-content-modification footprint which media clients arecandidates for implementing dynamic content modification, and (ii) basedon the identifying, engaging in processing for each identified mediaclient to direct the media client to implement dynamic contentmodification. Further, using the establisheddynamic-content-modification footprint as a basis to control which mediaclients to have implement dynamic content modification couldadditionally involve, based on one or more media clients not beingidentified as each being a candidate for implementing dynamic contentmodification, avoiding engaging in processing to direct each of the oneor more media clients to implement dynamic content modification.

In addition, as discussed above, the processing could include one ormore steps such as (i) working to identify a channel being rendered bythe media client, (ii) working to detect on the channel a presence of acontent-modification opportunity, and (iii) directing the media clientto carry out dynamic content modification with respect to thecontent-modification opportunity.

FIG. 8 is next a simplified block diagram of an example system operablein accordance with the present disclosure. This system could represent acomputing system, ACR server, content distribution system, contentpresentation device, and/or one or more other entities or systemsdescribed above or otherwise applicable in the context discussed above.As shown in FIG. 8 , the example system includes a network communicationinterface 800, a processing unit 802, and non-transitory data storage804, any or all of which could be integrated together or, as shown,communicatively linked together by a system bus, network, or otherconnection mechanism 806.

Network communication interface 800 could comprise one or more physicalnetwork connection mechanisms to facilitate communication on a network,and/or for engaging in direct or networked communication with one ormore other local or remote entities. As such, the network communicationinterface could comprise a wireless or wired Ethernet interface,cellular wireless interface, or other type of network interface, forengaging in IP communication and/or other type of network communication.

Processing unit 802, could comprise one or more general purposeprocessors (e.g., microprocessors) and/or one or more specializedprocessors (e.g., application specific integrated circuits). Andnon-transitory data storage 806 could comprise one or more volatileand/or non-volatile storage components, such as optical, magnetic, orflash storage.

As shown, the data storage 804 of the example system stores programinstructions 808, which could be executable by processing unit 802 tocarry out various operations described herein.

Various features described above could be implemented in this context aswell, and vice versa.

Finally, FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of an example media clientsuch as a representative content presentation device operable inaccordance with the present disclosure. In line with the discussionabove, this media client could take various forms. For instance, itcould be a television, computer monitor, receiver, or other device thatoperates to receive and process media content (e.g., video contentand/or audio content) for presentation. Numerous other examples arepossible as well.

As shown in FIG. 9 , the example media client includes a content inputinterface 900, a content presentation interface 902, a networkcommunication interface 904, a processing unit 906, and non-transitorydata storage 908, any or all of which could be integrated together or,as shown, communicatively linked together by a system bus, network, orother connection mechanism 910.

Content input interface 900 could comprise a physical communicationinterface for receiving media content to be processed for presentation.As such, the content input interface could include one or more wiredand/or wireless interfaces for establishing communication with andreceiving media content in analog or digital form from a receiver orother device or system. For example, the content input interface couldinclude one or more interfaces compliant with protocols such as DVI,HDMI, VGA, USB, BLUETOOTH, WIFI, among numerous others.

Content presentation interface 902 could then comprise one or morecomponents to facilitate presentation of the received media content ifapplicable. By way of example, the content presentation interface couldcomprise a user interface such as a display screen and/or a loudspeaker,as well as one or more drivers or other components for processing thereceived media content to facilitate presentation of the content on theuser interface.

Network communication interface 904 could comprise a physical networkconnection mechanism to facilitate communication on a network, and/orfor engaging in direct or networked communication with one or more otherlocal or remote entities. As such, the network communication interfacecould comprise a wireless or wired Ethernet interface or other type ofnetwork interface, for engaging in IP communication and/or other type ofnetwork communication.

Processing unit 906 could then comprise one or more general purposeprocessors (e.g., microprocessors) and/or one or more specializedprocessors (e.g., application specific integrated circuits). Andnon-transitory data storage 908 could comprise one or more volatileand/or non-volatile storage components, such as optical, magnetic, orflash storage. Further, as shown, data storage 908 stores programinstructions 912, which could be executable by processing unit 906 tocarry out various media-client operations described herein.

Various features described above could be implemented in this context aswell, and vice versa.

Further, the present disclosure also contemplates a non-transitorycomputer readable medium that is encoded with, stores, or otherwiseembodies program instructions executable by a processing unit to carryout various operations as described above.

Exemplary embodiments have been described above. Those skilled in theart will understand, however, that changes and modifications may be madeto these embodiments without departing from the true scope and spirit ofthe invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing system comprising: a networkcommunication interface; a processing unit; non-transitory data storage;and program instructions stored in the non-transitory data storage andexecutable by the processing unit to carry out operations including:using at least one steganographically-encoded timestamp in a mediastream transmitted to a media client as a basis to determine atransmission delay for media-stream transmission to the media client,and providing the determined transmission delay as a basis to facilitatecontrol over whether to have the media client implement dynamic contentmodification.
 2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the mediastream is transmitted to the media client from a content distributionsystem, and wherein using the at least one steganographically-encodedtimestamp in the media stream transmitted to the media client as a basisto determine the transmission delay for media-stream transmission to themedia client comprises: using the at least onesteganographically-encoded timestamp in the media stream transmitted tothe media client as a basis to determine the transmission delay formedia-stream transmission from the content distribution system to themedia client.
 3. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the at leastone steganographically-encoded timestamp indicates a reference time atthe content distribution system, and wherein using the at least onesteganographically-encoded timestamp in the media stream transmitted tothe media client as a basis to determine the transmission delay formedia-stream transmission from the content distribution system to themedia client comprises: decoding the steganographically-encodedtimestamp from the media stream to determine the reference time;determining a current time at the media client; and comparing thedetermined current time with the determined reference time to determinethe transmission delay.
 4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein thesteganographically-encoded timestamp comprises a watermark.
 5. Thecomputing system of claim 1, wherein the dynamic content modificationcomprises dynamic ad insertion.
 6. The computing system of claim 1,wherein the media client comprises a content presentation device.
 7. Acomputing system comprising: a network communication interface; aprocessing unit; non-transitory data storage; and program instructionsstored in the non-transitory data storage and executable by theprocessing unit to carry out operations including: receiving a reportindicating a determined transmission delay for media-stream transmissionto a media client, wherein transmission delay is determined based atleast on timestamp data steganographically-encoded in a media streamtransmitted to the media client, and using the determined transmissiondelay as a basis to control whether to have the media client implementdynamic content modification.
 8. The computing system of claim 7,wherein using the determined transmission delay as a basis to controlwhether to have the media client implement dynamic content modificationcomprises using the determined transmission delay as a basis to controlwhether a server engages in processing for directing the media client toimplement dynamic content modification.
 9. The computing system of claim8, wherein the processing comprises at least one step selected from thegroup consisting of: working to identify a channel being rendered by themedia client, working to detect on the channel a presence of acontent-modification opportunity, and directing the media client tocarry out dynamic content modification with respect to thecontent-modification opportunity.
 10. The computing system of claim 7,wherein the dynamic content modification comprises dynamic ad insertion.11. The computing system of claim 7, wherein the computing system is atan automatic content recognition (ACR) server.
 12. The computing systemof claim 7, wherein the media stream is transmitted to the media clientfrom a content distribution system, and wherein the transmission delayis transmission delay from the content distribution system to the mediaclient.
 13. A computing system comprising: a network communicationinterface; a processing unit; non-transitory data storage; and programinstructions stored in the non-transitory data storage and executable bythe processing unit to carry out operations including: respectively foreach of a plurality of media clients, receiving from the media client areport indicating determined transmission delay for media-streamtransmission to the media client, wherein transmission delay isdetermined based at least on timestamp data steganographically-encodedin a media stream transmitted to the media client, and using thetransmission delays for the plurality of media clients to establish adynamic-content-modification footprint, wherein thedynamic-content-modification footprint indicates which media clients arecandidates for implementing dynamic content modification, based on thedetermined transmission delays respectively for the media clients. 14.The computing system of claim 13, wherein the operations furtherinclude: using the established dynamic-content-modification footprint asa basis to control which media clients to have implement dynamic contentmodification.
 15. The computing system of claim 14, wherein using theestablished dynamic-content-modification footprint as a basis to controlwhich media clients to have implement dynamic content modificationcomprises: identifying based on the establisheddynamic-content-modification footprint which media clients arecandidates for implementing dynamic content modification; and based onthe identifying, engaging in processing for each identified media clientto direct the media client to implement dynamic content modification.16. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the processing comprisesat least one step selected from the group consisting of: working toidentify a channel being rendered by the media client, working to detecton the channel a presence of a content-modification opportunity, anddirecting the media client to carry out dynamic content modificationwith respect to the content-modification opportunity.
 17. The computingsystem of claim 15, wherein using the establisheddynamic-content-modification footprint as a basis to control which mediaclients to have implement dynamic content modification furthercomprises: based on one or more media clients not being identified aseach being a candidate for implementing dynamic content modification,avoiding engaging in processing to direct each of the one or more mediaclients to implement dynamic content modification.
 18. The computingsystem of claim 17, wherein the processing comprises at least one stepselected from the group consisting of: working to identify a channelbeing rendered by the media client, working to detect on the channel apresence of a content-modification opportunity, and directing the mediaclient to carry out dynamic content modification with respect to thecontent-modification opportunity.
 19. The computing system of claim 13,wherein the dynamic content modification comprises dynamic ad insertion.20. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the computing system is atan automatic content recognition (ACR) server.